I obviously have a very strong opinion on this and feel that owning a unique website, one that catapults me to the top of major search engines is a great advantage and an enormous benefit to my Clients. We all know about the statistics, the facts and published data stating the about 85% - 90% of home buyers starts their search online. So how do we take advantage of those numbers? We place ourselves online. People do it by blogging, writing articles, and creating quality, unique websites that are filled with valuable information and content. Only that way you can distinguish yourself from others. The key here is to have a website that can be easily found among millions of other websites online. So many Realtors however, still conduct their business without a website and to be honest I wo... 09/14/2008

What you can do to speed up the sale.... 1. Have a garage sale ( but advertise it!) to get rid of a few household items you no longer have use for...and use the opportunity to hand out a sales flyer about your home to every person that comes by! 2. Make sure to put "Shown By Appointment Only" below your phone number on your sign, and on your flyer. This won't stop all "door knockers" but it will stop most from showing up unannounced, expecting to walk right in at any time they like. ( Looks more "professional") 3. Make sure your home smells nice! Pot porri works great....or Try vanilla scented candles or even better, bake some chocolate chip cookies in the oven just before your "Open House". Just pick up a can of the "ready made dough" at the grocery store and pop them in the oven! 4. B... 09/12/2008

I’m sure you’ve heard by now, that we are slowly entering a Buyers market in Barrie. Big changes are on the way, and it’s all good, even for the Sellers, if they know how to handle those changes. So if you are one of those lucky people looking for a home today, hold on to your seat! There are great opportunities here! There are 962 listings in Barrie today, I’m sure you will find something that suits your needs. So how do you do that? How do you pick the ones that truly interest you. Well, you need to have a plan and some help. If you already live in Barrie, you will now what areas you would like to live in. This will be determined by the school your kids go to, or perhaps the proximity to your work, or just a prestige of an area. Then, you will need to sit down and list all your wants ... 09/12/2008

Barrie Market is slowing down, and yes, it’s a good thing. Just read Mark’s post below. He explains the issue quite well. I want to address the technical aspects of the situation. What we as Consumers, Home Owners – Sellers, Buyers and Investors need to know in order to get through this Market Slowdown without a glitch. If you own a home and plan on selling it in the near future, now more than ever you need to consider timing, price and state of your home. Over last 6-7 years, most of us in Barrie have been used to great market conditions, when homes sold in weeks, not months, where you could buy a home today and sell it a year latter for $100K more. It never really mattered when during the year that home was listed. Yes, August would slow down a bit and November/December showed a small... 09/12/2008

The Battle of the Century- Consumer Confidence versus Economic Fundamentals Many of you have commented that the "facts" in our current real estate market in Barrie and Orillia indicate a slowing down in home sales and price increases. Prices in some areas (Barrie's south end) have declined anywhere from 3-10% and homes solds has declined to 2006 levels. Yet in many recent articles we have made comments on the strength of the economic fundamentals. So what's going on? This article can go on forever to re-explain fundamentals, but in a nutshell, consumer confidence is a non-fundamental factor that influences the market. That is, consumer sentient definitely affects the real estate market. How we feel the economy is doing, what we think the future holds bears great influence on real estate... 09/11/2008

FSBO Internet techniques Not just for Central Ontario anymore!! If you are the owner of the house and want to sell it, direct the "for sale by owner" or FSBO technique is a better option for you to get financial gain from it. The local property market (Simcoe county), although vibrant, may require you to have some skills to sell your property in this market so that you can gain financially. FSBO or for sale by owner method is continuously gaining importance ( growing at a an astonishing rate), as here you the seller and the buyer gains a huge 3 to 6 percent of the sales value and if the cost of your for sale by owner property is $200,000, your financial gain is in the range of $6000 to $12000, which is a huge amount that you can put directly in your pocket. Actually a real estate agent ... 09/07/2008

The Bright Side of Real Estate Price Corrections With the headlines blasting out how much equity we have all lost in our homes and property investments in most major markets (they call them "Price Corrections"), I thought I would analyze where a price correction comes from and why it's a "good" thing. As well apply it to where I focus our real estate investing efforts, in the Barrie, Orillia, Innisfil and Midland real estate housing markets. I can't help but view a price correction as a necessary component of a healthy real estate market.  That it is a necessary correction that keeps the real estate market stable. It is not to be viewed as a negative component in the real estate business. Price Corrections occur when real estate values escalate too rapidly. It is just like when Ben John... 09/07/2008

Todays financial headlines sure sounds bad.... Once again I read the papers today and the headlines blare out a collapsing stock market.."Worse drop then in 2000"...reads the National Post. I myself get caught up in the headlines. It is difficult to sip a tall, cool one while reading all this negative news. I have to step back and once again consider the fundamentals of where my (and maybe even yours) real estate portfolio lies. So do I take my own advice from past blog postings and not panic? ...Do I really have a choice?. The answer is yes I have to take my own advice and go back and study the economic fundamentals of the Barrie, Orillia area and see how they affect my real estate holdings. So I ask, how do some of these national headlines affect real estate properties in Midland? In ... 09/05/2008

You may be in your early 20’s perhaps you are a bit older with a young family. This is your time in life to get into the Real Estate market and get things going on the right track. This is the best time to buy your first home. I remember my first time very well. In fact, it is one of my favorite memories. The most exciting time, the filling of pride and accomplishment. To be able to say good bye to my landlord and to start on a journey to financial freedoms. At first I wasn’t even sure we could afford a home. I had absolutely no idea. Homeownership seamed so prestigious, not for me and my family… But then, one beautiful Autumn day we went for a drive and came across some Builder offices… We walked in, asked questions, looked at some home plans and... went back home with ideas in our he... 09/03/2008

Fixer Upper Craze is here! In the wake of all the HGTV shows about "flipping houses" i.e. renovating and selling, Realtors find themselves with a renewed interest in such opportunities on part of their Clients. Some of them understand what's involved in such endeavor and come to the table with realistic expectations; others look for imaginary homes that are supposedly listed at $100,000 in the market that sells a fixer upper for $200,000… The second group is very reluctant to guidance from a Realtor, and yet we have to try to get them to where they should be realistically. If we let them stay in their dream world of "I can get it for a 100K", they will end up drastically disappointed and angry. Their believes come from years of watching those "flip shows" most of which are filmed in US ... 09/02/2008

To wiew this weeks Open House listings for Barrie, please visit www.Selling-Barrie-Homes.com. Please note: Properties on this Open House page are listed by other Realtors. Link will take you to the MLS website, and you will be able to view the listings. This information is provided for your convenience. www.Selling-Barrie-Homes.com, it's publisher and owner do not take any responsibility for mistakes and omissions in the property information featured in the listings of other Sales Representatives. *If you are considering a sale of your home, or looking to purchase one and would like some advice on how to proceed, please give me a call. I will be happy to provide you with a Free Market Analysis, and will be able to advise you on current Market conditions. Joanna Gerber Sales Representati... 09/01/2008

You may think I'm crazy, but I am so excited to get back into "it" after two weeks away! I can hardly believe it myself! I spent last couple of weeks on a road trip to Eastern Parts of Canada with my family and... no we did not strangle each other in the car by day three... we actually had a blast. I didn't realize how much we all needed this break. This was a perfect reminder that family should come first. I know that some people may think this is a Cliché, but I learned that it is true those last 14 days. You see I have two teenage boys who are on the brink of no longer wanting to do things with their parents... (I've been there not that long ago, and I know how it works) So planning this trip to PEI, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick I was a bit concerned about the possibility that my bo... 08/31/2008

Learn 5 Ways to Sell your Home Privately with no commissions In order to sell your house fast without a Real state Agent you must learn new and creative selling techniques. You can do what the Realtors do (sell and market homes) if you're willing to put in the sweat to make it happen. Saving money with FSBO sales is what it's all about. You can save up to 7% of the sales price in many areas. That would be $35,000 on a $500,000 home! Here are five great ideas to get you started on the FSBO (For Sale By Owner) track: •1.    Sell your house to an investor. This is "the" fastest way that I've seen to get your house sold. You can get a no-hassle offer, a quick closing, and you don't have to make any repairs. You do have to be prepared to take less than fair market value. That's their incenti... 08/31/2008

In Real estate there are always conflicting news headlines. One says good economic news another says bad. As reported (blogged) before and here again I say LOOK AT THE FUNDEMNATALS. I read today "US economy posts robust Q2 3.3% gains"... (National Post) and right beside it "Canada's surplus rises to $6.8Billion" . Hardly recessionary wording. Yet yesterday I read "US prices rise, housing Slump Deepens" (Globe and Mail) and "US Home builder stay grim".  In a two day period these are the financial headlines. As home owners and real estate investors what are we to make of all this conflicting news?  I say....nothing. That's right....nothing. We have wild sensational swings in news stories so which one is right?....I say...nothing.  As an investor with lots of exposure to the real estate ma... 08/29/2008

Tip #1- Handling Low offers while controlling your emotions!! Selling your home on your own can be a scary and daunting task. In the process of selling your home privately you've made the decision to save commissions and sell without the help of a real estate agent.  These FSBO sales Tips are here to walk you through the various situations you will encounter in the world of FSBO or For Sale by Owner. Since FSBO's is all about saving money in real estate fees, and these For Sale by Owner articles are here to show you how to do that, the first Tip we are going to discuss is how to keep your emotions out of the real estate game. Here is what I mean....You've lived in your home for many years. You've put your heart and soul into fixing it up. You have many life experiences tied into this pr... 08/28/2008

Provincial Government coughs up cash for Barrie Ontario The province of Ontario just gave a cash boost in the arm for the city of Barrie. How will this affect real estate and in particular the real estate investor, someone looking to invest in the Barrie area? Well as discussed before money from the province "usually" goes into infrastructure projects ( maintenance, water, roads,etc..). If any transportation links are upgraded ( 400 and Duckworth, Bayfield and 400 and Dunlop / 400) then yes you can bet your bottom dollar that this will reflect in a positive manner on the real estate values directly surrounding the transportation changes. And as mentioned before, the ripple effect will also have an affect on home and real estate values due to these changes. Even upgrades in basic infrast... 08/26/2008

ATTENTION BARRIE HOME BUYERS AND BARRIE HOME SELLERS! The Multiple Listing Service MLS.ca is now REALTOR.ca. This national real estate database which is the first source of Canadian Real Estate Buyers and Sellers has been improved and is now better than ever and user friendly. I am loving the new presentation and I really think that it is going to be easier for Buyers to find real estate properties, neighborhoods, real estate agents and other local information. I also think that it is great that this database is branding Realtors as Buyers sometimes don't understand why is important to use an agent exclusively for them to buy. Good Job CREA! Patricia :) 08/18/2008

More good economic news for Ontario and Barrie, Orillia. As discussed in my last investing fundamental ( ripple effect), Forbes has rated Toronto in there Top ten most powerful cities. It is only natural that Barrie and Orillia will (are) benefiting from this. The report was based on growth rate, economic size, and quality of life for its ranking. It was also specific in mentioning the GTA...which in my books includes the towns of Simcoe shores ( Barrie, Orillia). It goes on to say that Toronto and surrounding area are the economic heart of one of the worlds richest countries. Other cities in the top ten 1-London 2-Hong Kong 3-New York 4-Tokyo 5-Chicago 6-Seoul 7-Paris 8-Los Angeles 9-Shanghai Mark Vosylius (705)-812-1033 Email: mark(at) manainvestments com Mana Investments - www.manain... 08/14/2008

Planning to sell your home in the near future? You need to read this. Canadian Real Estate boom is over and some cities more than others have experienced the change already. How do we adjust to those changes that happen faster than anyone anticipated? 1. Be Well Informed. Talk to a Realtor and ask for a Free Market Analysis to get a good idea about current market conditions as well as the projections for that market for next 3 to 6 months. 2. Be Honest. Share with the Realtor the true reasons for selling, talk about your expectations in regards to her and be sure to understand and acknowledge her expectations as well. 3. Be Trusting. After talking to the Realtor (or few) you should be willing to accept the information they provided. If three people tell you that your home will sell for ... 08/12/2008

Over the next few weeks students will be returning to school. Our colleges and universities will once again be filled to the max with full and part time students, many of which will be living away from home or traveling a good distance in order to attend the school of their choosing. The cost of a post secondary education is a heavy hit, even more so when coupled with the high cost of student living accommodations. The monthly rates landlords charge for rental housing in proximity to colleges and Universities is exorbitant as they take full advantage of the great demand and limited supply.Something I advocate to those faced with the prospects of a son or daughter living away from home in order to go to school is why would you make the choice to pay rent for three, two or even one year ... 08/12/2008